Senate committee votes to require ultrasounds before abortions

RICHMOND – Women would have to undergo an ultrasound and be offered the results of that procedure before they receive an abortion in Virginia under a bill approved Thursday by the Senate Education and Health Committee.

As a part of the state's informed consent provisions relating to abortions, providers would be required to perform an ultrasound and ask a woman if she would like to see it at least 24 hours before the abortion is to be performed, although women who live more than 100 miles from the provider would only have to wait two hours. A woman who refuses to view the ultrasound would have to sign a statement —which would become a part of her medical file — saying she was given the option.

The bill's sponsor Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Faquier, and Victoria Cobb, head of the anti-abortion Family Foundation, contended the measure modernizes Virginia's informed consent law in ensuring an accurate gestational age of the fetus.

"It just simply updates our already existing informed consent law with modern technology," Cobb said. "This simply offers. It does not compel a woman to have to see or hear or do anything. It simply says as a matter of safety an ultrasound does need to be done."

Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said this was obviously a measure to discourage women from getting abortions.

"This has about as much to do with informing a woman as that bill last year — the health care clinic regulation bill — did with women's health," Saslaw said. "The intent of this bill is so damn obvious, hell, even Ray Charles could see through it."

Opponents, like Claire Tuite of the Alliance for Progressive Values, contend that showing women an ultrasound or making them sign a form if they refuse is designed to "psychologically blackmail" women from going through with an abortion.

Vogel said discouraging women from getting abortions is not her motivation. She said see sees it as a women's health issue — that the procedure can let them know if they have an ectopic pregnancy or other condition that would make the procedure dangerous. She noted that 20 other states have passed similar laws.

"It should be treated like any other medical procedure," Vogel said. "I don't view it that way. I view it as an important woman's health issue. I did not believe it was insensitive or in any way meant to intimidate or create artificial barriers to the procedure."

In addition to concerns about the psychological effect the requirement would have on women, Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, who is a physician and voted against the proposal, said he believes it infringes on the "sensitive" doctor-patient relationship.

Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, also an opponent, said the bill would be the first of many measures designed to limit abortion to come out of the now Republican-controlled Senate. She noted that most similar bills were defeated in committee when Democrats controlled the chamber.

"That was just the beginning," Locke said. "This is the first of any number of pieces of legislation that will be designed to erode women's reproductive rights."

Tourism wins

Tourism and business trumped Gov. Bob McDonnell's education and government reform agenda Wednesday when the Senate Health, Education and Welfare Committee voted against letting school start before Labor Day.

Senators were unswayed by arguments made in favor of letting local school districts decide whether to start the school year before the last summer holiday by Secretary of Education Laura Fornash, as a long line of local business associations, chambers of commerce, city councils and county boards spoke out against the measure.

Sen John Miller, D-Newport News, said while he supported such measures in the past, now that his district includes Williamsburg he has been convinced that the tourism industry and workers in that industry in the Hampton Roads region would be hurt economically.

Miller also said he received data from the state Department of Education that showed students who start school before Labor Day don't do any better on standardized tests than those who start after.